The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-12-13

inc "tNS or ne sovereign II SHALL be
done AID performed by the Sovereign
by aud with the consent of his Cabi-
net" This is the key to the whole
constitutional question and | shall
not discuss it further. Mr.. Presi-
dent, nearly all of us are represent
atives of those who took part in and
carried forward the movement of the
30th of June and the early days of
July. Those who spoke so fervently
and those who applauded so heartily
at "the great mass-meeting," and
those who sustained the movement
in other districts, are our constitu-
ents. To-day they demand Of us
that We maintain the principles which
they then established. We must not
prove false to our great trust. We
cannot have another Both of June.
We cannot have another lst of July.
The occurrence Of those days will
never be repeated. Any attempt in
that line will bring about results dis
astrOus in the extreme. We must
guard against whatever looks toward
such thing. For the sake of our
constituents and for the sake of our
King we ought take firm stand now
and avert future disaster and main
tain the peace of the land.
Mr.. Smith said the question be-
fore us now is: Has the King, under
the Constitution, the power to act in
open antagonism TO this House and
his Cabinet! Article IS of the Con-
stitution reads very clearly. There
is no ambiguity in it. Is the power
of the King otherwise expressed in
Article 4S of the Constitution. All
the way through this Constitution
are articles specifying what the
King shall do. | wish TO pick out II
few by way of illustration, Articles
26, 20 and 81. There are many
other powers all the way through.
If the King has the right to eXer-
else these powers without the sane
ton Of his Cabinet, he has the power
to exercise all other rights. l be-
lieve His Majesty has been acting
under very bad advice, and j be-
lieve that when the matter is pre-
scented to him he will see his mis-
take. If his act is legal and right,
then the right of Constitutional Gov
ernment falls to the ground. The
President of the United States has
been referred to. He is liable to
impeachment and can be removed
at any time. Again, he is only
elected for four years. If we had
the power in the Constitution to i'm
peach the King, it would be diff
ferent. The American people have
given the President the veto power,
but they reserve the power to i'm
peach him. We say to the King
you are the head of the Govern
ment, but you must act by the adj
vice and consent of your Ministers.
When you go beyond that, you go
further than the Constitution allows
you to 90, and further than the
people will allow you to go. In the
United States any man can bring
the President before a tribunal of
justice. That can't be done here,
so we must have some other way of
protecting ourselves. This is the
same old story of the King reaching
out for prerogatives. We do not
wish to take any prerogative from
His Majesty, nor will we surrender
any of our rights, and this is one of
them. For the King to come into
opposition with his people and
Cabinet is one Of the most vital
things that can happen. Asserting
these principles and demanding
them is the highth of loyalty. Dis
regarding them leads to but one re-
subtitle loss of Hawaii's indepen-
dence. 1t is the interest of every
one who has the interest of this
country at heart, to support these
principals. When on the 30th of
June, these articles of the Constitu-
ton were discussed, there was no
uncertainty in regard to them, and
when His Majesty answered the
demands made on him there was no
uncertainty in regard to what he
meant. In regard to the final issue
of this matter the result will be we
shall, we will have responsible gov
eminent in this country.
Minister Thurston said that as a
Minister of the Crown, he must be
guarded and conservative in what
lie said. In every land the peoples
rights have triumphed oyer the Sow
ereign's prerogative. In this case
the side of the people against the
Kings has the support of the Legis-
lature and the Cabinet, and it will
not be the first instance in which
they have triumphed. 1t is not ne
cessary to go beyond this kingdom
to see what course prerogative has
taken. Take the history of our
own country for the last 20 years,
from Kamehameha | who had sole
prerogative, he had the power of life
and death, Does any one now
think that such should he the CASE?
After skotching the history OF pre-
negative under different Kings from
that time, the Minister said:-
This brings us to the present Con-
stitution. Before we can fully de-
eide the principles involved, we
must consider what hroupht this